Typically, in my usual disorganised fashion, I cant find the Saint paper
(have an appalling filing system) but in my search found another paper by
Prosser Saint & Hartmann that you all may be interested in.

Although we have discussed pregnancy and tandem feeding before, this paper
has interesting data that I don¹t think I presented in the last discussion
some time ago.
Serial samples of milk were taken from the time of the last menstrual period
before conception until through early gestation. There was a progressive
decrease in the con'n of glucose and lactose (thus a decrease in milk
synthesis) and an increase in sodium and total protein (mainly immune
factors) despite the frequency of feeding remaining the same or even
increasing.

One woman had her milk production measured from 4 months gestation through
birth to 6 months post partum whilst tandem feeding. Her production remained
fairly constant at around 250mls from 4 months gestation up till the week
prior to birth. Production measured on Day One post partum was 42ml/24 hours
colostrum and had obviously dropped substantially at some time just prior to
or during the birth. Tandem feeding, she then increased her production to
about 2 litres at I month post partum and 2.25 litres/24hours at 6 months
post partum (older child 26 months). As you can imaging the antimicrobial
protein concentration would increase dramatically with a drop in volume from
250ml to 42ml/24 hours.

Prosser, Saint & Hartmann. 1984. Mammary gland function during gradual
weaning and early gestation in women. Australian J. Experimental Biology &
medical science (Pt 2) 215-228.

Saint, Maggiore & Hartmann. 1986. Yeild and nutrient content of milk in
eight women breastfeeding twins and one feeding triplets. British J of
Nutrition. 56:49.

Regards
Cathy Fetherston
Perth Western Australia

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